In recent years, electronic trading systems have gained widespread acceptance for the trading of a variety of items, such as goods, services, financial instruments, and commodities. Electronic trading systems generally receive and process trading orders from traders. Occasionally, traders submit low quality or unrealistic trading orders. Such trading orders specify criteria that vary widely from prevailing market conditions. For example, if the prevailing market price for a particular trading product is $25.00 per unit, a trading order to buy the particular trading product for $8.00 per unit may be considered an unrealistic trading order. Unrealistic trading orders do not typically result in quickly executed transactions. Instead, unrealistic trading orders usually remain unfilled for long periods of time. As a result, unrealistic trading orders do not increase liquidity in the market place.
Electronic trading systems typically process trading orders received from traders according to “first-in, first-out” (FIFO) principles. Based on FIFO principles, electronic trading systems process trading orders in the order in which they are received from traders. As a result, if a realistic trading order (i.e., a trading order that is likely to result in a quickly executed transaction) is received shortly after an unrealistic trading order (i.e., a trading order that is unlikely to be filled quickly), the realistic trading order must wait while the electronic trading system first processes the unrealistic trading order. This delay in processing the realistic trading order may decrease liquidity in the market place.